Lacoste and Express use the most absurd colors. Ralph Lauren's horse, and Lacoste's alligator are oversized on way too many shirts, which just makes you appear obnoxious and brand obsessed. D&G and Gucci are just becoming too logo happy.

How so? This guy isn't selling anything. It's maybe not the most substantive threak line I ever saw, but at least I can contribute Tommy Hilfiger, a former hanger-on of rock bands who designs(?) some of the most forgettable pseudo-americana I've seen.

In this regard I think all the best big name brands that make more than just higher end business/casual clothing (Brioni, Kiton, Isaia, etc.) have tacky items. I'm not sure if everyone else notices but the cheap stuff, which is readily available, always has the logos on the outside and the nice stuff, which is usually more expensive, just looks nice for the most part, plus I think it's worth mentioning that most designers have been trying to escape Tom Ford's (Gucci) influence on the previous decade's extravagant logo-mania

In this regard I think all the best big name brands that make more than just higher end business/casual clothing (Brioni, Kiton, Isaia, etc.) have tacky items. I'm not sure if everyone else notices but the cheap stuff, which is readily available, always has the logos on the outside and the nice stuff, which is usually more expensive, just looks nice for the most part, plus I think it's worth mentioning that most designers have been trying to escape Tom Ford's (Gucci) influence on the previous decade's extravagant logo-mania

Good post. Echoes much of my sentiment. All labels with possible 1 or 2 exceptions will produce pleasing items as well as unorthodox / weaker items. Once you dig under the surface of their top "business class" lines, you find much mediocre stuff either badly designed, average quality, or just plain dumb. Thats why I am not so much a brandophile - of all fashion label stuff, only 1 or 2 pieces catch my interest. If I average over the whole lot, I find fashion brands like Gucci, Armani, Prada etc generally uninteresting and a waste of money. Of course, I occasionally catch pieces by these labels which I really like - it just happens with some degree of rarity. I would not go so far to call any of the obvious labels tacky - I prefer to call them highly capricious.